SPE-167097-MS压裂液及温度对裂缝复杂指数的影响

SPE 167097

Influence of Fracturing Fluid and Reservoir Temperature on Production for Complex Hydraulic Fracture Network in Shale Gas Reservoir

Charles-Edouard Cohen, Xiaowei Weng, Olga Kresse, Schlumberger

Copyright 2013, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Unconventional Resources Conference and Exhibition-Asia Pacific held in Brisbane, Australia, 11–13 November 2013.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright. Abstract

Production from shale reservoirs depends greatly on the efficiency of hydraulic fracturing treatments. Cumulative experience in the industry has led to several best practices in treatment design, which have improved productivity of these reservoirs. Nevertheless, shale reservoirs still bring challenges to stimulation engineers, due to the complex physics involving interactions with natural fractures, stress shadow effects and proppant transport in complex fracture network.

One of the challenges regards fluid and proppant selection, in particular, the issue is how to achieve the desired fracturing fluid viscosity inside the fracture for optimum proppant placement into an expanding complex fracture network. The rheological properties of the fracturing fluid depend on its temperature history, hence understanding the temperature distribution in the hydraulic fracture network is a key consideration for a successful treatment and a more accurate fracture prediction.

This paper investigates the relation between reservoir temperature, fracturing fluid properties and production through fracturing-to-production simulation workflow. The paper first presents a temperature model implemented into the UFM model, which is a comprehensive complex fracturing simulator for shale reservoirs, accounting for interaction with natural fractures, stress shadow effects, and proppant transport in a complex networks. Based on the fracture geometry, proppant placement, and reservoir properties, a semi-analytical production model UPM is used to estimate the production.

This workflow is used to first understand the temperature distribution in the expanding fracture network and understand its evolution as a function of several parameters such as reservoir temperature and rheological properties of the fracturing fluid. Then the associated production forecast provides guidelines on how to achieve optimum proppant and fluid selection based on the reservoir temperature for maximizing production.

Introduction

One particular aspect of shale plays compared to conventional resources regards the critical role that the design and execution of the hydraulic fracturing treatments plays in well productivity. The industry has learnt through many years of trial and error several best practices regarding hydraulic fracturing of shale reservoirs. Often the learning curves begin with the past experiences on conventional reservoirs where the fracture is believed to be bi-wing. Shale reservoirs bring new challenges due to the complex physics involving interactions with natural fractures, stress shadow effects and proppant transport in complex fracture network.

One important parameter to consider is the rheology of the fracturing fluid, which depends on the temperature history inside the fracture network. This will affect both the geometry of the hydraulic fracture network (HFN) and the proppant placement inside the network. Therefore, understanding the temperature distribution in the HFN is important in order to optimize fracture complexity, proppant placement, and ultimately production. The objective of this paper is to investigate the relation between the temperatures inside the HFN, the fluid and proppant selection, and the production, through a simulation workflow.

The simulation workflow uses the UFM model (Weng et al., 2011) for simulating the hydraulic fracturing process. It accounts for interaction with natural fractures, stress shadow effects, and proppant transport in a complex networks. Then the workflow automatically exports the properties of the resulting HFN (geometry, conductivity, ect.) as well as the appropriate reservoir properties to the semi-analytical production model UPM to estimate the production. This workflow was previously described in Cohen et al. (2012) and a previously published parametric study by Cohen et al. (2013) illustrated how it can help understanding some of today’s best practices and be used to optimize treatment design. To simplify the analysis, this